Nino Niederreiter | Photo: KEYSTONE/Salvatore Di Nolfi
Patrick Fischer, the head coach of the Swiss hockey team, has named the squad for the upcoming world championship.
Switzerland played the last three test matches of the Eurotour last weekend, losing against Sweden (1-2) and Finland (1-3), but winning against the Czech Republic (2-1). After these matches, 10 hockey players were subtracted, but at the same time, six additions were obtained, so that 24 players who will go to the WC became known.
Winnipeg Jets forward Nino Niederreiter – Switzerland’s all-time best goal scorer in the National Hockey League (NHL) – has become the most powerful addition. This season, the 31-year-old Niederreiter stood out with 34 (16+18) points in the main tournament.
Five finalists of the Swiss League – Dean Kukan, Sven Andrigetho and Christian Marti, representatives of Zurich “Lions”, as well as Andrea Glauser and Ken Jaeger, players of “Lausanne” joined the team. It should be reminded that in the Swiss final, “Lions” beat “Lions” with 4-3, Latvian forward Rūdolfs Balcers becoming the champion, while Ronald Ķēniņas won the silver.
This year Switzerland will be represented at the World Championship by five NHL players – in addition to the already mentioned Niederreiter, New Jersey Devils captain Niko Hischier, defender Jonas Siegenthaler and goalkeeper Akira Schmid, as well as Chicago Blackhawks forward Filip Kurashev will be in the team.
The national team is also likely to be joined by the captain of the Nashville Predators, Roman Josi, whose team withdrew from the Stanley Cup last week, recognizing the superiority of the Vancouver Canucks represented by Artur Shilov and Teodor Blüger. Switzerland will go to the WC with seven defenders, leaving one spot for Jossi, who currently has to undergo medical tests in Nashville.
During the preparation cycle, Switzerland also played two test matches against Latvia, winning convincing successes with 5:1 and 4:0. In the upcoming world championship, the Swiss will play in subgroup A in Prague, where they will meet with Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Austria and Great Britain.
It should be reminded that last year’s WC in Riga and Tampere the Swiss started with six victories, but in the final game of the group tournament, resting several leading players, they lost to Latvia 3:4 in extra time, which was followed by an unexpected failure in the quarterfinals against Germany (1:3).
